The Australian government was last night fighting off accusations that its new get tough policy on boat people arriving in Australian waters had indirectly caused the deaths of some 357 mainly Afghan refugees who drowned off the Indonesian coast on Friday while trying to sail to Australia.
The leader of Australia's main opposition party, Labor's Mr Kim Beazley, said the failure of the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, and his government to "hammer out" a solution to the boat people problem with the Indonesian government meant there was no deterrent for refugees to try and reach Australia by sea from Indonesia.
He added that, following the Indonesian government's refusal to even return Mr Howard's phone calls during the Tampa affair in August, the Prime Minister should have held bilateral talks on the boat people issue with President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia at an APEC meeting over the weekend.
Mr Beazley was joined by the Refugee Action Collective in laying blame for Friday's tragedy at the door of the Australian government.
The group said the boat people drowned because of the Australian government's hard-line approach to asylum-seekers.
"It is a consequence of the policies of the Australian government in terms of the criminalisation of the movement of refugees," a spokesman, Mr Simon O'Neill, said. "It is forcing people to take more desperate methods to get to Australia." But Mr Howard strongly rejected the claims. He said because Australia is in the middle of a federal election campaign Mr Beazley is trying to use the "tragic events for political gain".
"It is a desperate slur," Mr Howard said of Mr Beazley's remarks. "If there is responsibility for this tragedy it especially lies with the people smugglers. What my opposite number is trying to do is score a political point out of the deaths. I think that is outrageous, nothing can excuse that kind of behaviour."
Mr Howard has gained a groundswell of support in recent months following his refusal to allow the Tampa refugees land in Australia in August and his government's subsequent policy of turning away any vessel carrying refugees.
The boat people issue has been the most emotive to date in the near three week old election campaign with the incumbent coalition government just ahead in the opinion polls.
